* There were no other cars around, literally. The Wendy's was in the middle of a strip mall-type shopping center, and it could clearly be seen and heard that there were no vehicles in the vicinity besides the employees' cars in the parking lot.

Again, this is just an educated guess, but failure to consistenty enforce a policy would mitigate the policy's effectiveness in reducing the company's culpability. They probably don't allow low-level employees to make judgment calls, because that would blow up in their face if they had to defend a lawsuit. So in the interest of consistency, they're going to instruct the employees to never serve walk-up customers. So from the company's point of view, how many cars were around isn't really relevant. Besides, what guarantee is there that a car won't drive up? Just because there isn't one there right now doesn't mean one couldn't drive up at any time.

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* I can understand the safety concern, except that one of the doors into the restaurant was two feet to the right. One would think that they would want paying customers to enter through said door, which would involve said paying customers crossing the drive-through strip. ...

Crossing, and standing there are two different things. And I'd be willing to bet that they have some sort of marked crosswalk, and most likely a sign to alert motorists that pedestrians are crossing. Now, I know what you're going to say, "Well they could put a sign saying people might be standing at the window." They could, but they probably figure it's less risky and easier to just not allow them. Sometimes it's just not possible to design a restaurant so that customers can get in without crossing the path of cars, but they probably would if they could. The local Jack-In-the-Box here actually has a steel rail in front that makes it impossible to enter from the drive-thru side.

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* The really frustrating thing is that -- well, they're open! I want to buy food from them! That's their business! I feel I should reiterate that this location is two blocks away from a college campus. It seems as if it would be a good business decision to allow pedestrian customers. And dammit, I really wanted fries!

Yeah, you'd think. I'm guessing that the security risk from leaving the doors unlocked all night outweighs the potential profit from late night walk-in customers. That must be the case, because it's very rare for fast-food places to leave the dining room open all night. I agree that it's frustrating.